Sextant Refine
SextantREFINEbeta
Crystallographic refinement · by Echo Life Sciences

Refine an X-ray structure in the browser

Maximum-likelihood refinement of coordinates and B-factors against your amplitudes, with stereochemical restraints, flat bulk solvent and isotropic, anisotropic or mixed ADPs. Structure factors and their gradients are summed exactly on the GPU.

Simulated 1.45 Å data with a precomputed result, to try the viewer and the building tools.
Ready
1Data & restraints
2Bulk solvent & scaling
3Macrocycles
4Maps & output

Refinement

Load an MTZ and a model, then press Refine. The statistics of every macrocycle appear here as it runs.
CycleR-workR-freeGapBonds (Å)Angles (°)⟨B⟩ (Ų)AnisoWatersClasheswxyzTime
No run yet.

The MTZ keeps your observations and R-free flags and adds 2mFo−DFc (FWT/PHWT) and mFo−DFc (DELFWT/PHDELWT) map coefficients, FOM and Fmodel; Coot opens FWT and DELFWT automatically. The PDB carries ANISOU records for anisotropic atoms.

R-factors by cycle

R-work (solid) and R-free (dashed) after each macrocycle. R-free should fall with R-work; a widening gap means the model is fitting noise.

R-factors by resolution

Final model, in shells of equal reflection count. R rises towards high resolution as the signal weakens.

B-factors and the ADP model

The ADP model and the cross-validation test appear here after a run.

Equivalent isotropic B of the final model: protein and ligand atoms (bars) and waters (outline). Anisotropic atoms are counted at their Beq.

Ordered solvent

Water building and its cross-validation appear here after a run.
StepBeforeAddedRemovedAfterR-free, just after
No run yet.
Waters added
None yet.

ΔLL is the change in −log-likelihood on the half of the data that did not see the peak (negative = the water explains those reflections better). Click a water to centre the 3D view on it.

Geometry and validation

Deviations from ideal geometry, before and after refinement, appear here after a run.

    Table 1

    Data collection and refinement statistics in the usual journal layout. Cells marked fill in need the unmerged data; type the values from your processing log straight into the table before copying.

    Appears after a run.

    Electron density

    refined model and maps
    The maps appear here after refinement.

    Drag to rotate · shift-drag to pan · wheel to zoom · shift-wheel to change the 2mFo−DFc contour · double-click an atom to centre on it.

    Model building

    Click a residue in the sequence or an atom in the view.
    Figures

    The 2D figure uses the current orientation: turn the view so that the ligand lies flat, then export.

    5

    Ligands

    Pick a ligand. L puts it at the centre of the view for placing by hand (Shift-drag moves it, Alt-drag turns it), F then fits it around that spot, and Find ligand sites tries every blob of unexplained density. The fit uses only the map and the restraints. Nothing joins the model until you press Enter.

    Sequence

    CC to 2mFo−DFc
    Colour model by
    1.2 σ
    3.0 σ
    10 Å

    Difference density

    Connected mFo−DFc density above +3σ after refinement, ranked by integrated density. Isolated blobs are candidate waters, ions or ligands; blobs on the model point to alternative conformations or misplaced atoms.

    Waiting for maps…

    Log

    Methods

    data processing, structure solution and refinement, as journals print them
    Appears after a run. It describes every step this structure went through in the Sextant pipeline (Process → MR → Refine), with the program versions, the models used and the final statistics.

    Text in square brackets is for you to complete. Facts come from the files loaded (Sextant Process and Sextant MR zips) and from this refinement.